ATHABASCA – Town of Athabasca bylaw officer Brian Bandura has received his peace officer designation, which gives him the authority to enforce local and provincial laws.
CAO Rachel Ramey informed council at its July 14 meeting and Bandura later explained what the new designation actually means.
“I got my Community Peace Officer designation from the province and now I am a CPO-1,” he said, adding he now has double duty enforcing laws passed by the municipality as well as the province.
“So, the bylaws are still part of my responsibilities for the Town of Athabasca, but now my scope does include the additional responsibilities of provincial statues. There are two levels; CPO-1 allows me to do traffic, CPO-2’s are basically just doing things more stationary, like stationary traffic duties, but CPO-1 allows me a lot more authority,” Bandura said.
Bandura also informed council at the meeting that between June 11 and July 8 he handled 45 cases and issued 11 municipal violation tickets.
Cases included one resolved instance of nuisance barking and the dog owner was cooperative and proactive with correcting the problem. He added he attended four residences where people had requested firepit inspections. Three required changes before being compliant.
“One fire permit issued; file complete – installation was compliant with town requirements,” Bandura said.
Other files were related to two occurrences for business bylaws, one for a land use bylaw, one noise complaint and 10 traffic bylaw infractions, 22 unsightly properties and three were for disorderly conduct, vagrancy or property damage.
The final occurrence had to do with an off-highway vehicle being driven on the east side of town.
“I attended one occurrence relating to an off-highway vehicle being driven in Cornwall; a motor vehicle ticket was issued to the vehicle operator for bylaw contravention,” he said.
Heather Stocking, TownandCountryToday.com
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